https://web.stanford.edu/group/cui_group/papers/Lucas_Cui_Nix_JPS_2014.pdf

Mechanical behavior of electrochemically lithiated silicon

New experimental methods are developed to measure the uniaxial power-law creep parameters α and n in the relation e = α σ n ( e is the creep strain rate and σ is the creep stress) from indentation data obtained with a conical or pyramidal indenter. The methods are based on an analysis of Bower et al., which relates the indentation creep rate to the uniaxial creep parameters based on simple assumptions about the constitutive behavior ( Bower et al., 1993 ). Using finite element simulations to establish the influences of finite indenter geometry and transients caused by elasticity, the proposed methods are explored experimentally using amorphous selenium as a model material. This material is well suited for the study because it creeps at temperatures slightly above ambient in a load-history independent fashion with a stress exponent close to unity. Indentation creep tests were conducted with a Berkovich indenter using three different loading methods. With a few notable exceptions, the values of both α and n derived from the indentation data are generally in good agreement with those measured in uniaxial compression tests, thus demonstrating the validity of the approach.

https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2633&context=utk_graddiss

Measurement of power-law creep parameters by instrumented indentation methods

We report on the loading-rate dependence of localized plastic deformation in inorganic covalent, metallic, ionic and superionic glasses. For this, the strain-rate sensitivity is determined through instrumented nanoindentation in a load-controlled strain-rate jump test. Through relating the strain-rate sensitivity to the reduced temperature, the packing density, the network dimensionality and the average single bond strength of the system, a qualitative mechanistic description of the strain-mediating process is possible. A strong variability of strain-rate sensitivity is obtained only at intermediate values of packing density, network connectivity or bond strength, when other parameters such as chemical composition and specific structural arrangement are dominating the deformation process. On the other side, for high bond strength and connectivity or for high packing density, the strain-rate sensitivity of the considered glasses is always low, which is also confirmed through the dependence of strain-rate sensitivity on Poisson ratio. Here, only for glasses with a Poisson ratio of ~ 0.3–0.4 we observe a wide variability of the loading-rate dependence of local deformation. For higher or lower Poisson ratio, the observed dependence is always low: when the limiting factor in deformation is primarily network connectivity and bond strength or packing density, respectively, once an activation barrier is overcome, deformation is only weakly loading-rate-dependent. This is regardless of the height of the activation barrier. When approaching the glass transition temperature, high strain-rate sensitivity is observed only in glasses where non-Newtonian flow is expected also in the corresponding liquid.

Strain-rate sensitivity of glasses

Nanoindentation experiments are widely used for assessing the local mechanical properties of materials. In recent years some new exciting developments have been performed for also analyzing thermally activated processes using indentation based techniques. This paper focuses on how thermally activated dislocation mechanisms can be assessed by indentation strain rate jump as well as creep testing. Therefore, a small overview is given on thermally activated dislocation mechanism and how indentation data from pointed indenters can be interpreted in terms of uniaxial macroscopic testing. This requires the use of the indentation strain rate as introduced by Lucas and Oliver as well as the concepts of Taylor hardening together with Johnson expanding cavity model.

These concepts are then translated to nanoindentation strain rate jump tests as well as nanoindentation long term creep test, where the control of the indenter tip movement as well as the determination of the contact are quite important for reliable data. It is furthermore discussed, that for a steady state hardness test, the interpretation of the hardness data is straightforward and comparable to macroscopic testing. For other conditions where size effects play a major role, hardness data need to be interpreted with consideration for the microstructural length scale with respect to the contact radius.

Finally strain rate jump testing and long term creep testings are used to assess different thermally activated mechanisms in single to nanocrystalline metals such as: Motion of dislocation kink pairs in bcc sx-W, Grain boundary processes in nc-Ni and ufg-Al, and the Portevin-le Chatelier effect in ufg-AA6014.

Dynamic nanoindentation testing for studying thermally activated processes from single to nanocrystalline metals

A direct comparison of high temperature nanoindentation creep and uniaxial creep measurements for commercial purity aluminum

Measurement of material creep parameters by means of nanoindentation using continuous stiffness techniques avoids the problems associated with thermal drift that often plague creep measurements based on the time dependence of the indentation depth alone [1,2]. Problems with thermal drift are negligible from a practical point of view during continuous stiffness measurements because the contact stiffness can be measured over a short time period, typically less than one second, during which time the displacements due to thermal drift are minimal. Determination of the time dependence of the indentation depth from the stiffness data relies on the well-known relation between contact stiffness and the square root of the contact area. For pyramidal indenters, the true indentation contact depth must be proportional to the contact stiffness, leading to the assumption that indentation depth is also proportional to the contact stiffness. In this study, we critically examine this assumption using data obtained from experiments on a relatively soft material, epoxy, and a relatively hard material, fused quartz. The results show that just after initial load application, the change in contact area may be different than that expected from the change in indentation depth. One possible explanation for the observed behavior is examined by finite element modeling.

On the Measurement of Creep by Nanoindentation with Continuous Stiffness Techniques

https://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1363&context=utk_graddiss

Sangjoon Sohn

Papers

Measurement of power-law creep parameters by instrumented indentation methods

On the Measurement of Creep by Nanoindentation with Continuous Stiffness Techniques

A Study of Indentation Creep Using the Finite Element Method

Merging ASME and API Design Methods for Subsea Equipment Up To 25,000 PSI Working Pressure